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Sunday, April 27, 2008

NOSTALGIA!

One of my blogging buds posted about gummy bears and chocolate covered gummy bears. Gummy bears appeared on the scene about the time Son #2 was a little boy. I remember a local gift store carrying them first and they were the "Hot Item". For some strange reason, I not only did not like them, but could not even stand the smell of them. I digress-the purpose of this post is not the "Johnny Come Lately" candies, but those that I remember from my childhood.

My Mother was not a fan of candy or sweets, so we never had cookies, candy or any junk food in the house. We usually kept some fruit and almost always had ice cream, but the sugary junk food was a "No No". So needless to say, I LOVED CANDY! During the good old days, we had coke and candy machines at school. They were placed in the gym lobby close to the building for high school & junior high. You were given free rein and as long as you had money-you were in luck. Most of the time, I had no money! About the time that I was in the 5th grade, a new elementary school was built which was across the street from a little neighborhood corner store. Believe it or not, at the time we were allowed to cross the street during recess and buy candy from them. I did not very often have the money to do so, but still remember the treat of the occasional trip to the "Candy Mecca"! My Uncle & Aunt owned a mercantile store two doors down from the local movie theater. I remember many a trip there and spending long minutes perusing the candy counter and all of the sugary delights it contained. Lack of tender often created a huge problem for me, but I still poured over the potential choices.

The above picture is of "Candy Cigarettes". CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! This was just about the time that they were figuring out how bad cigs were for you, but I do remember the "Sinful Candy". Now Momma & Daddy smoked until Daddy died from lung cancer at which time Momma quit. Even though they smoked, Momma would have had a fit if I had bought candy cigarettes and dared to act like I was smoking. LADIES did not smoke in public! Now it was perfectly alright for them to PUFF away behind the closed doors of their home, but out in public-A BIG NO NO! A child to pretend smoke with candy cigs would have been a disgrace! I am off the track again!

I LOVED CANDY-probably because it was pretty much forbidden at home. Candy orange slices, baby ruths, butterfingers, milky ways, peanut patties, on and on. One of the things I remember so well is the jar that was on the grocery counter with cookies in it. You would go in and ask for a cookie or two and they would open the jar and take out a cookie or two, put it in a tissue and sell it to you. In today's world, MOST unsanitary!

A trip to the Saturday afternoon matinee would entail an ENTIRE quarter being placed in my hand. This was enough money to get into the double feature afternoon of movies, but in addition I had enough change to buy a fountain coke, popcorn and a couple of penny candies. YOU COULD ACTUALLY BUY Penny-One Cent Candy back then. You came out of the 1 o'clock matinee 3 or 4 hours later flying high on sugar with squinted-light deprived eyes in a state of Hollywood induced Dream Land. LIFE WAS GOOD!!!!!!!